Gurugram: The Lok Sabha election results in Haryana suggest that the change of guard in the state — bringing in Nayab Singh Saini as chief minister in place of Manohar Lal Khattar — days ahead of the announcement of poll dates doesn’t seem to have worked for the BJP if its objective was to check anti-incumbency.
The ruling BJP had made a clean sweep in the 2019 elections by winning all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. This time, it won only five, while the Congress made a stunning comeback, winning the remaining five seats.
Besides Khattar who won from Karnal, and industrialist Naveen Jindal’s victory at Kurukshetra, the BJP’s wins were largely restricted to the national capital region and Ahirwal seats of Faridabad, Gurgaon, and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, with Congress sweeping the Jat heartland of the state.
The BJP’s central leadership, in a surprise move, replaced Khattar, the state’s CM for nine-and-a-half years, with Saini, the BJP MP from Kurukshetra, on 12 March this year. The party used the opportunity to get rid of Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) which was demanding a share in tickets in Haryana in lieu of its support to the government.
The move came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the inauguration of the Dwarka Expressway at Gurugram, praised Khattar and spoke about his years-old association with him, narrating how he used to ride pillion on Khattar’s motorcycle while travelling from Rohtak to Gurugram over two decades ago.
In a quick turn of events, Nayab Singh Saini won the vote of confidence in a special assembly session convened on 13 March. Khattar announced his resignation from the Karnal assembly seat and the party named him as its candidate for the Karnal Lok Sabha seat. It was seen as a means to battle anti-incumbency against the BJP-JJP government headed by Khattar.
The change of guard came less than five months after the party replaced its state president O.P. Dhankar with Saini in October last year.
‘No one to control bureaucracy, or party workers’
While campaigning, Khattar claimed he himself had suggested the change of guard to Modi almost a year ago, but it was only implemented ahead of the elections.
“The BJP had to pay for both the changes. Nayab Singh Saini became (state) party president towards the end of October 2023 and before he could get accustomed to the functioning of the post, he joined as CM too,” a senior BJP leader told ThePrint, requesting anonymity. “When the ECI announced polls on 16 March, he was just a couple of days into the office. Suddenly, we didn’t have a person who had control over the bureaucracy nor someone with complete control over the (party) workers.”
The BJP leader further said that the change of guard proved to be a “self-inflicted goal” by the party.
Some BJP candidates like Ashok Tanwar from Sirsa, Mohan Lal Badoli from Sonipat and Ranjit Singh from Hisar have complained of lack of support from the party cadre. Meanwhile, Khattar said at a press conference that some government officials worked against the interests of the BJP during the elections and action would be initiated against them.
“Had Khattar been allowed to continue and Dhankar as state president till these elections, the results would have been different. Officialdom had no one to take control because Khattar was no longer the CM and Saini was not used to dealing with them. Similarly, it was Dhankar who worked on making the organisational network to the Panna Pramukh level and suddenly we had a new person in the dual role of CM and the party president during the elections. Dhankar was not even kept in Haryana and was assigned duties in Delhi,” said the BJP leader quoted earlier.
Mahabir Jaglan, a political analyst from Haryana, opined that if Khattar’s replacement was aimed at arresting anti-incumbency, then the move has failed to achieve its objective.
“Anti-incumbency against the BJP government in Haryana was discernible during the campaign for elections and is also visible clearly in the trends of the results. The results could have been 8-0 or even 9-0 in favour of the Opposition had there been a level playing field for them and had the mainstream media played its role well,” Jaglan told The Print.
He further said that even the change of guard was more of an “eyewash” since Khattar has still been calling the shots. “The way Khattar threatened the government employees of action recently and how the chief minister’s office (CMO) in Haryana still has officers owing allegiance to Khattar proves that the change of guard was only an eyewash.”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
Also Read: ‘BJP promises Gujarat model in Haryana, but no one knows what it is,’ says Congress’s Kumari Selja
BJP may have to indulge in some tight rope walking during the ensuing assembly elections in Haryana.